Edna Cukierman

..Special emphasis is given to environment-mediated drug resistance in general and to cell adhesion-mediated drug resistance in particular...

..In this review we describe some of the physico-mechanical characteristics of tumor-associated ECMs believed to play important roles in regulating epithelial tumorigenic behaviors...

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..The goal of this study was to analyze the direct effects of staged stroma-derived extracellular matrices on breast cancer cell behavior...

..These results identify PACE4, together with other PCs, as suitable targets to slow down or block tumor progression, suggesting that PC inhibition is a potential approach for therapy for solid tumors...

..We tested the hypothesis that FAP enzymatic activity locally modifies stromal ECM (extracellular matrix) components thus facilitating the formation of a permissive microenvironment promoting tumor invasion in human pancreatic cancer...

..These systems provide unique experimental tools to identify early alterations in stromagenesis that are supportive of tumor progression with the ultimate goal of blocking neoplastic permissiveness and restoring normal phenotypes...

..Cell adhesion and spreading are normal on these matrices. This matrix can also be compressed into a two-dimensional matrix and solubilized to study the matrix biochemically...

..In this study, we demonstrate that in vivo-like three-dimensional matrices appear to have the necessary topographical and molecular information sufficient to induce desmoplastic stroma differentiation of normal fibroblasts...

..024 and 0.008, respectively). These data provide novel insight into the mechanisms underlying head and neck carcinogenesis and facilitate the identification of new targets for chemopreventive intervention...

..It describes how to produce and characterize fibroblast-derived 3D matrices. Finally, it describes how to test matrix permissiveness by analyzing the morphology of cancer cells cultured within various 3D matrices...

..Based on these results, we propose that these matrices potentially have value as in vitro drug screening platforms...

..Here, we introduce an in vivo-like 3-D system of mesenchymal stromal progression during ovarian tumorigenesis to support the study of stroma permissiveness in human ovarian neoplasias...

..PACE4 overexpression resulted in enhanced susceptibility to carcinogenesis and tumor progression pointing to a new target for blocking tumor cell invasiveness...

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..Here we review stromagenic stages, experimental 3D systems, and discuss digital imaging analyses suitable for uncovering the mechanisms behind fibroblastic breast stromagenesis...

..The clinical value of assessing RCC stromal activation merits further study...

..Analysis of recurrent tumors suggests that liposarcomas can develop despite limiting or undetectable activity of a constitutively active telomere maintenance mechanism...

..Here we show how to measure the rates and directionality of fibroblasts motility within physiologically relevant in vivo-like cell-derived three-dimensional matrices...

..These results place HEI-C as a novel regulator of spindle function and integrity during the metaphase-anaphase transition...

..These observations suggest that within in vivo-like conditions Src may have a leading role in the induction of sustained ERK1/2 activation...

..Total Rac1 activity can therefore provide a regulatory switch between patterns of cell migration by a mechanism distinct from chemotaxis...

..Furthermore, they imply that bioactive polymers can selectively induce specific cell-matrix adhesions, a characteristic that may have consequences in various tissue-engineering applications...

..We propose here a molecular model for the tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent regulation of focal adhesion kinase organization involving Src kinases and an inhibitory phosphorylation of the C-terminal (Tyr-925) tyrosine residue...

..These studies identify a central function of uPARAP/Endo180 in cellular collagen interactions...

..These three-dimensional systems are illuminating mechanisms of cell-matrix interactions in living organisms...

..Developing therapeutic approaches focusing on containing cancer as a chronic and innocuous disease is our ultimate goal. ..

..Ultimately, our long-term goal is to target the tumor-associated stroma thus maintaining cancer as an innocuous chronic disease. ..

..Ultimately, our long-term goal is to target the tumor-associated stroma thus maintaining cancer as an innocuous chronic disease. ..